Twen­ty years ago, Sound Tran­sit wel­comed rid­ers onboard the first street­car sys­tem to be built any­where in its urban tri-coun­ty juris­dic­tion: Taco­ma Link.

Today, in the City of Des­tiny, that pio­neer­ing street­car line final­ly dou­bled in length with the debut of rev­enue ser­vice on the Hill­top Link extension.

ST cel­e­brat­ed the rib­bon-cut­ting with an hour­long pro­gram next to the Hill­top Dis­trict sta­tion that includ­ed per­for­mances by TUPAC dancers and NW Sin­foni­et­ta. Speak­ers includ­ed Sound Tran­sit CEO Julie Timm, Unit­ed States Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mar­i­lyn Strick­land, Taco­ma May­or Vic­to­ria Wood­wards, and Deputy May­or Kristi­na Walk­er, an ST boardmember.

The sev­en new sta­tions make the T‑Line (the new name for Taco­ma Link) a much more ver­sa­tile sys­tem that pro­vides con­nec­tiv­i­ty between more places in the city. That was evi­dent to those of us who joined Sound Tran­sit staff on Wednes­day for an enjoy­able and infor­ma­tive pre­view ride along the entire align­ment.

“The Hill­top exten­sion is a major step toward cre­at­ing a more con­nect­ed Taco­ma and region as we con­tin­ue expand­ing our tran­sit net­work,” said Sound Tran­sit Board Chair and King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine in a state­ment. “With this open­ing, rid­ers will have even greater access to oppor­tu­ni­ties and the com­mu­ni­ties con­nect­ed by this new service.”

“Taco­ma and the Hill­top neigh­bor­hood is on the rise,” Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell said. “This is life-chang­ing to an area where 27% of house­holds don’t own a car.”

“If you are a stu­dent at Sta­di­um High, or SOTA, or Ever­green, now you have anoth­er way to get to school. If you have an appoint­ment at Taco­ma Gen­er­al or St. Joe’s, you also have an eas­i­er way to get there. If you want to take your fam­i­ly to the sta­di­um dis­trict, or down to Wright Park, or just have din­ner in Hill­top or down­town — you now can take the T‑line.”

Cantwell’s office point­ed out that she “helped secure $183.3 mil­lion in fed­er­al fund­ing for the project, includ­ing $93.3 mil­lion in loans from the Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (DOT) Trans­porta­tion Infra­struc­ture Finance and Inno­va­tion Act (TIFIA) pro­gram, and $75 mil­lion from the Cap­i­tal Invest­ment Grant (CIG) pro­gram. Fed­er­al fund­ing cov­ered over 64% of the total project cost.”

“Con­nect­ing our his­toric Sta­di­um Dis­trict, Wright Park, med­ical facil­i­ties down­town, and the Taco­ma Dome, to the rest of our city and the broad­er region, these light rail sta­tions rep­re­sent our ongo­ing com­mit­ment to sus­tain­abil­i­ty, equi­ty, access and mobil­i­ty for all,” said Sound Tran­sit Board Mem­ber and Taco­ma Deputy May­or Kristi­na Walk­er. “Today is a big day for Tacoma.”

Sound Tran­sit staff timed the rib­bon cut­ting to occur just as the first train slat­ed to car­ry pas­sen­gers rolled into the Hill­top Dis­trict Sta­tion from St. Joseph.

Videos of the fes­tiv­i­ties are below for those who could­n’t make it and would like to watch the speak­ing pro­gram or take in the expand­ed T‑Line.

The ribbon cutting

Watch the rib­bon cutting:

Aerial view of trains rolling through Hilltop

Get a bird’s eye glimpse of the T‑Line in service:

The performances

Watch TUPAC dancers and NW Sin­foni­et­ta perform:

The speaking program

View the com­plete speak­ing program:

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Sound Tran­sit on today’s big mile­stone! It was a long jour­ney from the ground­break­ing to today’s rib­bon cut­ting, but we got there.

How to ride the T‑Line

The T‑Line is oper­a­tional sev­en days a week. At peak times, it arrives at twelve minute fre­quen­cies (Sound Tran­sit promised ten minute peak fre­quen­cies, but con­clud­ed it could­n’t safe­ly or fea­si­bly deliv­er those at launch). Fre­quen­cies drop to every twen­ty min­utes pri­or to 6:30 AM and after 8 PM on week­days, but stay at twelve min­utes for all week­end ser­vice. The T‑Line runs for about sev­en­teen hours on week­days, fif­teen hours on Sat­ur­days, and nine hours on Sundays.

While the T‑Line has his­tor­i­cal­ly been fare-free, that is no longer the case.

One-way fares are $2.00, regard­less of dis­tance trav­eled. Rid­ers will have the best expe­ri­ence with an ORCA card. Those on low incomes are encour­aged to apply for an ORCA LIFT card, which cuts the price of every ride in half.

Rid­ing the T‑Line is sim­ple: Head to any of its twelve sta­tions, tap your ORCA card or buy a tick­et from a kiosk, and walk on the train. Then, step off when you’ve reached your des­ti­na­tion. All plat­forms have low floor board­ing. Elec­tron­ic sig­nage and audio announce­ments on the train are pro­vid­ed to help with wayfinding.